Kennett eliminated from Legion playoffs

ROYERSFORD — With seemingly nothing going right for Spring City during the first half of Sunday’s Chester County League loser’s bracket game against Kennett, Kristian DeLuzio held down the fort like a veteran general.

Neither a shaky defensive stretch that saw three errors (one by DeLuzio himself) put the Red Sox in a two-run hole, nor a lineup that spent the opening three frames misfiring could crack DeLuzio’s steely composure.

“Not at all,” the right-hander said when asked if he was a little worried about the sluggish opening. “I knew we’d come back. That’s how our offense has been all year, especially the past two weeks.”

True to form, the offensive calvary charge — led by Tom Grablewski, Tyler Eckman, Dave Gulati and Angelo Kelly — eventually came and rescued the Red Sox from elimination in a 6-2 victory at Ram Stadium.

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Leadoff man Kelly went 2-for-5, including a game-tying RBI triple, and also scored the go-ahead run on Richie Michaud’s sacrifice fly in the fifth inning as second-seeded Spring City (25-9) scored six unanswered runs over a four-inning span from the fourth through seventh frames.

Grablewski went 2-for-2 with a double and two runs, Eckman was 2-for-4 with three RBI and Gulati was 2-for-3 with one RBI to help the Red Sox bounce back from Saturday’s 5-3 winners bracket semifinal loss to Lionville and advance to tonight’s 7 p.m. elimination game against fourth seed Conestoga, back at Ram Stadium at 7 p.m.

“That loss (Saturday) really hit us hard,” said Grablewski, the team’s veteran second baseman. “We wanted to come back fighting even more today.”

Still, it was the fifth seeded Colts (18-8) that drew first blood, plating two, two-out unearned runs off DeLuzio in the second inning.

And with right-hander Conor Wing — who was an impressive 4-1 with a 1.78 ERA for Kutztown University this spring — on the mound for Kennett, a second straight tourney loss appeared a distinct possibility for the Red Sox.

But Grablewski and company weren’t having any of that.

“We knew we could get to him (eventually),” he said. “We started slow, but I knew we could come around.”

Grablewski ensured that would happen by lacing a one-out double to right-center in the fourth and scoring two batters later on Eckman’s fielders choice to get the Red Sox on the board.

Then in the fifth, after Louie Vining deliverd a leadoff single and engaged with Wing in a cat-and-mouse game that saw no less than seven throws over to first, the lefty-swinging Kelly unloaded a triple to right center to tie it. Michaud followed with a sac fly to center to put Spring City up to stay.

Eckman singled in another run in the sixth, then Gulati hit a sacrifice fly and Eckman had another RBI single in a two-run seventh for the final margin.

DeLuzio scattered eight hits, while striking out three and not walking a batter over eight innings.

“The last time we faced them (an 8-6 win), they really hit my fastball, so I knew it might be good to come out and throw a lot of off-speed stuff,” said DeLuzio, who featured his slider throughout. “When you’re pitching with your back against the wall, you know you have to come out with everything you have.”

“Kristian really kept us in the game,” Red Sox manager Jamie Scheck said. “We had a bad inning there with our defense, so for him to keep a good-hitting team like that at bay and give us time until our hitters started getting their confidence. ... I mean, that’s a college pitcher out there (they were facing). ... Just a great job on Kristian’s part.”

The second-inning snafus notwithstanding, Spring City threw more than its share of leather at Kennett. Third baseman Vince Ianni ended the first inning with a nifty stab of Wing’s hot shot and threw to first for the out, Vining made a highlight-reel diving grab in center to rob Drew Diehl in the eighth, and Grablewski deftly turned a 4-3 double play in the final inning to help reliever Cody Brown escape potential trouble.

“We’ve just got a lot of fight and heart on this team,” Grablewski said. “We know we’re hosting regionals, but that’s not how we want to go into it. We want to win the league (playoffs) and go all the way through.”

“I don’t know what it was yesterday, if it was their pitcher or what,” DeLuzio said. “But today we came out and showed what we’re all about.”